THE WORLD’S COMING GREEN ECONOMY

Working towards sustainable development; Opportunities for decent work and social inclusion in a green economy

May 31, 2012 (UNEP)

“The resource-intensive development model of the past will lead to rising costs, loss of productivity and disruption of economic activity. Estimates based on the ILO Global Economic Linkages (GEL) model suggest that in a business-as-usual scenario, productivity levels in 2030 would be 2.4 per cent lower than today and 7.2 per cent lower by 2050. This is in line with the findings of a number of studies assessing economic damages due to environmental degradation and loss of basic ecosystem services…

“The current development model is also inefficient as regards productive employment and decent work. It has failed to create sufficient decent work opportunities and has generated increasing systemic instability induced by the financial sector, which has high costs for enterprises and workers…If the business-as-usual scenario continues to dominate, wasteful production and consumption patterns along with continued soil degradation, deforestation, overfishing and climate change will result in increasing water shortages and escalating prices for food, energy and other commodities…This will exacerbate problems such as poverty and inequality as well as malnutrition and food insecurity… due to the fact that low-income households spend a significant and disproportionate share of income on energy and food and related items. These trends will impose massive social and economic costs…whereas a greener economy and more sustainable enterprises is creating tens of millions of green jobs…”

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“…[F]or countries at all levels of development the drive towards environmental sustainability and greener economies is gaining momentum…[T]ens of millions of green jobs have been created. For example, employment in environmental goods and services in the United States in 2010 was 3.1 million (2.4 per cent) and growing. Similar levels and dynamics are seen in other countries, such as in Brazil, where 2.9 million green jobs (6.6 per cent of formal employment) were recorded in 2010 in sectors aimed at reducing environmental harms.

“Job growth has been particularly strong in the renewable energy sector, increasing globally at a pace of 21 per cent per annum. As a result, renewables now employ close to 5 million workers – more than double the number employed only a few years ago…Energy efficiency is another important source of job creation, particularly in the construction industry, which has been hit particularly hard by the financial and economic crisis…Large numbers of jobs also exist in the area of ecosystem services: for example, in the European Union, 14.6 million direct and indirect jobs protect biodiversity and rehabilitate natural resources and forests. And China has created over a million new jobs in its forestry programmes…”

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